Professional development for online university teaching

Abstract

Almost every higher education institution is challenged to develop increasing numbers of staff to teach online or blended modes of learning. The process needs to be rapid, cost-effective and lead directly to practical outcomes. From our experience, we had little time, opportunity or the need to start from scratch, and we chose to adopt and adapt a course that was based on a well-rehearsed and respected pedagogical model. We offer our experience to date as a case study with some extracted principles for others to explore and follow. We discuss the value of contextualization, incremental innovation, and mentoring of online convenors. This article will be of interest to those seeking to provide effective professional development routes for large numbers of staff.

Keywords:

• contextualization
• mentoring
• e-moderating
• professional development
• online teaching
• capacity building

Acknowledgement

The authors thank David Shepherd of All Things In Moderation Ltd for his support, mentoring, and comments on this article.